Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Foxe, Martyrs, Early Church, & Joel Osteen


            Foxe, John.  The New Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.  Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 2001.


"Foxe, Martyrs, Early Church, &

 Osteen (Polycarp Edition)"

A few notes and interpolated

comments.

Mt. 16.18:  “I will build My Church and

the gates of hell [hades] shall not prevail against it."


Three things: (1) Christ’s Church exists in this world. (2)

There are mighty and historic enemies who attack the

Church. (3) The Church prevails.

        Foxe gives the following.  (We wish to check these

against Eusebius’s reports in Ecclesiastical History.)

        A quick view.

1.  Jesus.  Crucified in Jerusalem and risen from the grave.

2.  Stephen, deacon, Acts 6-8, stoned to death.  Saul-later-Paul was the official who witnessed and sanctioned the martyrdom (Acts 8.1).

3.  Persecution against the church of Jerusalem (Acts 8.1).

4.  James, the son of Zebedee, Apostle, and brother of John the Apostle.  44 A.D. Put to death by King Herod Agrippa 1.  According to an Alexandrian theologian, Clement of Alexandria, the following story is given: one of James’s captors fell at James’s feet, confessed his sins, and confessed Christ.  Both James and the captor-confessor were beheaded.

5.  Timon and Parmenas, two Deacons, were killed at Philippi and in Macedonia, respectively.

6.  Philip the Apostle.  54 A.D. Imprisoned and crucified in Hierapolis.

7.  Matthew the Apostle.  Beheaded in Nabadah, Ethiopia.

8.  James the Less, brother of Jesus (Acts 12.17; 15.13ff.; 21.18ff.).  According to Josephus, James was killed in 66 A.D. Hegisippus, an ancient historian (110-180 A.D.),[i] is quoted by Eusebius (260-340 A.D.).[ii]   James was tossed from the Temple tower in Jerusalem, was still alive though injured, and was finished off with a club.

9.  Mattias, the replacement of Judas the Apostate who was elected in Acts 1 as the new replacement.  Stoned in Jerusalem.

10.    Andrew, the brother of Peter.  Crucified in Edessa (near northern headwaters of Tigris-Euphrates).  In history, term will develop called “St. Andrew’s Cross.”

11.    Mark, nephew of Peter the Apostle.  A chequered history with St. Paul, but he recovers and is “useful” to St. Paul in later years.  The reported amanuensis and “interpreter” of St. Peter. “Dragged to pieces” in Alexandria, Egypt according to Foxe for speaking “against the solemn ceremony of their idol Serapis.”

12.    St. Peter.  According to Hegissipus, crucified upside down in

       Rome under Nero.

13.    St. Paul.  A long resume of recorded sufferings in Acts.  See     a catalogue in 2 Corinthians 11. More could be said.  Foxe suggests the two-imprisonment theory with Paul’s death in 66 A.D. under Nero. 

14.    Jude, the step-brother of Jesus. Killed at Edessa, Mesopotamia.  72 A.D.

15.    Bartholomew.  Translated The Gospel According to St. Matthew into Indian. Beaten and killed.

16.    Thomas. Persia, Parthia, and India. Speared and tossed into flames.

17.    Luke.  Died quietly in Boetia at age eighty-four and “full of the Holy Ghost.”

18.    John, the Apostle.  After a storied life, exiled to the island of Patmos, repatriated to Ephesus and died in 98 A.D.

Again, three things were noted: (1) Christ’s Church exists in

this world. (2) There are mighty and historic enemies who

attack the Church. (3) The Church prevails.

Thus far for Joel Osteen’s vision of life (Polycarp Edition). 

Tongue in cheek for those who don’t follow Joel’s Your Best

Life Now.

Thus far from John Foxe, Anglican cleric (1560 A.D.), but a

man who refused preferments and advancements in

Elizabeth 1’s England on puerile issues of “adiaphora

,” that is, “adiaphora that really mattered and was

imposed on others by way of felonious penalties against

property and persons.”  Foxe escaped Bess 1's wrath,

however. But enough there. It's an intra-mural Anglican

thing.

And the story goes on.



[i] Online at:  http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/hegesippus.html.  Awaits further research.
[ii] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History.  Various editions exist.  It has been years since reading, but a retour is in order.  It is a must-read for high schoolers and/or collegians.  I prefer the hard copy on the lap.  However, it is available at:  http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.toc.html.  Accessed 16 Jul 2013.

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